Death marked
by prayforme
Summary: Someones opened a portal leading to Morganville; it vanishes as quickly as it appears but not before the signal is tracked to London. So what will happen to those accused of knowing too much? especially since they claim their innocence?...
1. Chapter 1

It was a normal Monday morning; well as normal as it could get really.

I'd woken up surprisingly early, but that still couldn't tone down the anger I felt towards the radio blaring out of my phone, meant to wake me up.

I pressed the button to turn it off, and spent some time fumbling around for my ipod.

Turning it on, and popping the headphones in, I got out of bed, making my way towards the bathroom.

30 minutes later and I was done.

I usually packed my bag the night before to save me time in the mornings, so the extra time today was rewarded by eating breakfast.

Something I was always to be busy for.

I hear my mum come down the stairs and stop at the bottom step to put her shoes on, 'any chance you can help me find my hat?' she asked.

I sighed and drank the last of my milk, 'where'd you last see it?' I said, getting up.

'Upstairs, maybe? Not to sure, just look around my room' she replied, pulling on her gloves.

I sighed again, and made my way up the stairs.

It didn't matter that we were now entering Spring, she felt safe wearing all her winter gear until she knew for definite that the temperature outside was going to be in the teens.

And even then, anything below 15 degrees Celsius, and she still wore her thermals.

But then again, in Britain who could blame her?

I stepped into my mum's room and did a quick scan.

I spotted the black and white hat across the room on a chair and made my way around the furniture to pick it up,

'Found it!' I yelled.

One thing I couldn't resist to do was to look out her window.

The view from my room was just mainly gardens, train tracks and a few factories.

Although, occasionally the sky would turn to a gorgeous pink-orange colour that was picture perfect, but my mums was quite the opposite.

She had our driveway (which our neighbour mainly used), our road and the back of peoples house's that lived on the road before ours.

I noticed the sun peeking out from behind the clouds, and knew it was going to be cold.

One thing my mum taught me was if the suns out on a winter's day, it'd be colder then if it died.

She tended to be right about these things.

I was about to head downstairs when something caught my eye.

A black car, parked on the curb opposite my house.

Tinted windows, metallic black and oh so James Bond, I frowned and wondered what it was doing there.

I didn't remember seeing it there before, or last night.

Hopefully it'd be gone by the time I got back from school -with my house still intact (I got paranoid about lurking cars or people).

With a shrug, I turned and made my way downstairs.

I left 15 minutes after my mum.

Taking the train had its advantages; the free newspaper and extra time was the main.

As I left the house, I turned to lock the door and felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise, almost as if someone was watching me.

Spinning round, my eyes instinctively went towards the black car.

I stood there for a while; just staring through the windows, weather anyone was in there staring back or not, I couldn't get rid of the paranoia swirling round my brain.

A train overhead broke my concentration as I realized I have to get to school.

Shaking my head and telling myself I was paranoid, I set off down the street with my headphones once again in, and my ipod playing.


	2. Chapter 2

I arrived at school at 8:10, all previous worries and paranoia erased from my mind.  
I set my bag down on the table and pulled out some work.  
The first thing I learnt when I came to secondary school was that 'homework' secretly meant 'work-that-you-should-do-during-registration-and-break-or-face-getting-a-detention' and it wasn't until the start of year 10 that I found out the true extent of this secret meaning; with essays and exams being thrown at us, left, right and centre.

I tried to concentrate but gave up after what seemed like 2 minutes; there wasn't much I could do apart from just wait for people to start arriving.  
By 8:25, there were only 5 people in the class, including me.  
I frowned to myself, this wasn't normal.  
I turned round to ask the people behind me if there were problems on the road, before my friend Alyssa walked in; she looked tired and breathless and could barely even gasp out a 'hi'

'What's going on?' I asked  
'Traffic' Alyssa gasped out, 'really bad, cars everywhere, not good, can't breathe…'  
I was in the middle of asking if there had been an accident or something, before Dawn walked in.  
'Taking the fecking piss these bloody cars are! And bus drivers as well! Could have been here 10 minutes ago and finished of my History essay but NOO! They cant let us exit the bus unless we're at a goddamn bus stop!' she yelled, slamming her bag down onto the table, her Irish accent thicker then I have ever heard it in the 3 and a half years that I have known her.

I reached into my bag and pulled out a newspaper, 'here's something that'll cheer you up' I said, tossing it towards her.  
'Taa darling' she responded in a voice a lot calmer than the one she used entering the classroom.

'Honestly' Alyssa said, her breathing controlled and voice calm 'just cause you have a flashy car that's all shiny and nice doesn't mean you can just park it anywhere!' she sighed 'and what are they thinking parking it round here!? Someone will just be walking past and be like 'oooh shiny pretty car' then' she then mimicked looking round, breaking into the car and hotwiring it before driving off; sounds effects included.

I laughed, that was the sort of person she was, wonderfully erratic and sarcastic.  
An absolute lethal combination when arguing with her.

The door opened and in came Davina, Kailah and Alice, all breathless.  
'SEE!' Alice yelled, stamping her foot on the ground 'we weren't going to be late! There was no need for me to run, but no one believed me, hmph.'  
'Yeah well, I didn't have a watch, neither did Kailah, and with the bus going at a mile per hour, can you really blame me for thinking we were late?' Davina yelled, sighing 'tramp' at the end, and giving her shove with her hip that made Alice go flying into the corner.

'Behave children' I smiled, before joining in with the others laughter.  
Alice and Davina were always arguing but no matter how many insults or play fights that went on between them, they were actually quite inseparable.

Davina flashed a cheeky smile our way, her teeth pearly white and incredibly noticeable against her tanned skin (ah, the perks of having half-Portuguese genes) and then turned on her heels and went to put her bag down.

'Ah, that was fun' Kailah said, smiling.  
Her smile then formed a frown as she looked round the class and noticed only half the people were in 'what is this? No ones in' she said looking round in confusion

'They all died' Alyssa said solemnly  
'How sorry would you be if that was true?' Dawn mumbled, eyes on the newspaper.  
'Not as sorry as I'd feel if I was forced to hide behind a sofa due to your little sister attacking me with soft toys again' she replied as a group of 5 people walked in.

Spotting my "twin" Yuki amongst them, I caught her eye and opened my mouth to ask if there was traffic before she beat me to it and started by kissing her teeth.

'These goddamn cars think just cause there all black and shiny they can stop in the middle of the road and take up the parking space in Tesco! There was buses on one side, cars on the others and these big damn shiny things just in the middle! Swear down, it made me more road crossing illiterate then ever!' she ranted.

'Please, you're always road crossing illiterate…' I mumbled  
She was in the process of opening a bottle of cherry lucozade when her head shot up and she sent daggers towards me.  
I smiled widely at her, making sure she could see all my teeth, and she merely kissed her teeth and turned away.  
Alyssa laughed; this was just our normal routine.

The bell rang 10 minutes after that group of 5 arrived.  
The majority of the class had given up all hope on the buses and decided to run to school, causing them to arrive just in the nick of time.

Settling into my chair, I groaned as I realized that this was now officially registration, which meant it was now officially a Monday; meaning another week of work, stress and no sleep for me.

Yuki turned towards me and narrowed her eyes, 'stop making unnecessary noises' she said, I smiled to myself before replying with 'your turning into your mother'.  
Before she had a chance to reply our form tutor arrived.

She was laden with around 3 different bags and a massive purple umbrella, but didn't seem the slightest bit bothered about that –or us for that matter.

'You okay miss?' a person yelled out at the back.  
Slowly turning towards the class, she replied in the most softest voice 'Why yes. But I believe these following girls have to go to the office at once: Alice Kensington, Alyssa Cole, Crystal Lloyd, Dawn O'Shay, Davina Da Silva, Kailah Carter and Yuki Evans'

Catching the eye of all my friends, I frowned, wondering what we had done.  
With a shrug, Dawn stood up swung her bag round her and walked out.  
We all looked at each other for reassurance, did exactly the same and followed pursuit.

As I left the classroom I hesitated, and turned back to look inside.  
Our form tutor was now sitting at her desk, but something was wrong.  
She looked dazed and confused, not at all like her former self.  
Different thoughts swirled round my brain; but I had to shake them out and get myself psyched up for the walk of doom towards the office.


	3. Chapter 3

Walking down the old wooden panelled corridor, I smiled to myself.

Alyssa and Alice had been bickering as soon as we left the classroom and their arguments never failed to be anything but entertaining.

'…That's a bunch of rubbish' Alice snapped

'No its not, its perfect and it makes sense. Due to you and your wicked witch ways, we are now suffering. I bet you anything we're going to be excluded for encouraging relations with Satan' Alyssa sighed.

Alice sighed heavily and stamped her foot, ' I cannot believe I am having to defend myself over this, what is the world coming to…?'

The ironic thing about their conversation was the fact that yes this was a Catholic Girls school (no, not everyone is catholic, there are no nuns and boys are allowed in from 6th form) and at _least_ one class had a strict religious person ready to preach out to you.

Well in our class, it was Alice and Alyssa.

Except –and this is where the similarities end- Alyssa was against any "certain liquids" tainting her soul while Alice freely accepted that (not to mention the secret stash of books in her room all about the spiritual and unseen forces, or "witchcraft textbooks" as some people called them) but she'd also expect us to go to church the next morning with a hangover.

'Okay, seriously guys, why do you think they need us?' Kailah asked

Alyssa sighed heavily, 'I'm _telling_ you, its for encouraging relations with Satan! Or you guys have been exposed on facebook with your dodgy house party pictures…' she trailed off.

We all knew better then to argue with her. It would always end up with her calm as anything with us getting stressed to the point of tearing out our hair trying to prove our point.

We walked down the steps in silence, thinking what was going to happen.

What Alyssa had said had been crazy, but with this school, it was possible.

Stepping into the corridor where the main offices were situated, we paused.

'Where do we go?' whispered Davina, 'No idea…' I whispered back.

The hallway was surprisingly empty, it was normally full of late students or teachers who were signing in, but today, there was none of that.

There was a click behind us and we turned to find the door to the dining room slightly open.

It was normally used for meetings with governors or any important visitors and had massive bay windows that looked out into the courtyard of the school, filling the room with light.

This time it was different.

From what I could see of it, it was pitch dark.

Yuki had just muttered out an 'okay then…' before a pale hand shot out, beckoning us in.

As a reflex we all screamed, but whoever was inside didn't seem too impressed with that and hissed a 'Be quiet and get in'.

We did as we were told.

Stepping into the room was like stepping into another world.

The curtains were drawn and clipped together, almost as if making sure no light entered the room.

The décor was normally that of a vintage regal feel, with all the swirls and gold's around the furniture.

Now, with the lack of light, it looked more gothic.

There was a fireplace situated on the far right, along with 2 sofas.

A tall woman, dressed in clothes that fitted the vintage feel of the room stood with her back to us.

Burly men stood on each side of her, black suits, black gloves and one of those Bluetooth headsets. Now that was _very_ James Bond.

'I should really be saying sorry for the lack of lighting my dears, the UV rays are a lot stronger up north and we are more susceptible to damage here, but compared to the risk you exposed us to, I wont.' The woman said.

'Magnificent place London was…still is really. Last time I was here, it was in the middle of the blitz. Our German kind were planning to overthrow the royal family, luckily we got here in time, the only person actually hurt was an observing bystander, the fool didn't know when to turn away when told to…' she added

Someone behind us coughed.

We had actually forgotten that there was someone else in the room apart from the 3 we had our eyes on.

'You must get to the point, we don't have much time. You mortals can go closer you know. We cant guarantee that we wont bite, but it saves you straining your precious ears.'

We all hesitated, scared to look at the man behind us and scared to step forward.

'Oh gods sake, sheep the lot of you' he muttered and walked past us to stand near the woman.

'We don't have time' the woman snapped at the guy who had made his way towards one of the sofas next to her.

'Okay, well in that case, tell us who the hell you are and why you're here then' Dawn said.

There was an underlying tension in her voice and those who knew her well knew that she was working up to her psychopathic number 1 bitch mode.

The man (the same as before, the other 2 'bodyguards' just seemed to be really large statues) laughed. He was lounged on the sofa as if he was at home. A leg up on the sofa, and an arm spread out on the armrest.

The laugh was short and almost a growl, his face turned neutral to stare at us before saying 'as if you don't know'.

'But we don't. So why don't you just answer the question instead of giving us riddles? Okay? Cha man, wasting our time…' Kailah trailed off, ending with a kiss of her teeth to prove her point.

The man's eyes diverted to us as a group to just her, his face still free of any emotion.

'Feisty bunch, aren't you?'

Alice let out a long loud sigh, 'wasting my time…' she said, I was sure I saw the woman tense up, which I was sure was Alice's intention.

I wasn't even sure if she had finished the sentence but the next thing I knew, they guy was right there up in her face, eyes as hard as stone.

'Wasting your time, are we? Can't believe the cheek you guys have… a threat to our existence and home and you complain about wasting _us_ wasting _your_ time?' He snarled, his eyes focused on Alice.

He quickly jumped up and walked round to the other side of the room, mumbling 'if it was up to me, we'd have run round and snapped your little necks by now…'

Dawn, hearing this, had to react. 'Excuse me? What the fuck is your problem? What have we exactly done to you!?'

'Oliver' the woman said quietly, but threatening. Almost like a warning you give a child throwing a tantrum in public.

"Oliver" (whom I'm presuming was the guy with fantasies to kill us) chose to ignore her, and simply turned on his heel to face us.

He gave a smile, slightly crooked, slightly hot (you know, if you were into the whole 'rugged' tree-hugger, hippy look –I think the ponytail gave it away).

'Why don't I show you?' he said still smiling,

'Oliver.' The woman warned again, her voice stronger then before.

'You' his eyes snapped to Dawn 'Chatty number 1, come here.'

Dawn frowned and looked around at us, then with a shrug she came forward.

I knew if she was scared she wasn't going to show it.

I think it was part of her being Irish.

'And you, chatty number 2' Oliver pointed two fingers at Kailah.

'And chatty number 3' he moved the two finger point towards Alice, 'come here as well'

Alice moved forward with confidence and a frown on her face, while Kailah hesitated and had to be pushed forward by Alyssa.

She looked back, met eyes with Alyssa, and kissed her teeth.

Alyssa laughed and muttered 'tramp'.

'So. You guys want to know what you've done, eh?' Oliver said, hands in pockets, jumping from one foot to another.

'Would say playing dumb, but then again with humans, especially teenagers, its not really _playing_ most of the time, is it?'

The woman moaned, as if she was in pain.

With Oliver being the centre of attention we forgot that she was even there.

'Oh for fu-' Dawn began to yell, stepping forward.

She never finished her sentence.

Almost as quickly as her outburst had been, Oliver was faster and had lifted her up almost as if she weighed nothing and shoved her through the wall, where she disappeared.

We screamed.


	4. Chapter 4

The woman in the corner turned around so fast, it made _me_ feel dizzy.

'Was there any need for that!?' she hissed, her pupils dilated, and was it me, or did her irises have an outer lining of crimson? Almost like the colour of blood sharpened on Photoshop numerous times.

Oliver acted like a young boy who had just been caught doing something wrong.

'I'm sorry but their incompetence and ignorance just got the better of me'

'Screw that, where the hell is she!? Where'd she go?' I screamed.

As far as I -and anyone else in the room that was sane and normal- knew, Dawn had been pushed through the wall and hadn't come out the other side.

It didn't help that the wall was completely normal and flat, almost as if what just happened hadn't and we were all just dreaming.

'As if you don't know. Now, stop playing games with us. You can obviously tell that we aren't joking, and that this matter is serious, so why on earth are you still pretending that you don't know?' Oliver shouted, his voice rising towards the end of the sentence.

'That's cause we don't know! Shiiit, anyone would have gotten it by now! We don't know what's going on! We don't know why you're here, and we don't know what the hell you just shoved our friend through!' Kailah yelled.

Oliver's head snapped towards Kailah.

'Come here' Kailah did as she was told.

'We don't have enough time. How do you know about us?' He said this slowly, less threatening.

'We don't know about you lot. Whatever you are. I don't even know what it is we're supposed to have done!' She said through gritted teeth.

Oliver leaned back, and took a while to register this thought, before:

'Oh sorry, wrong answer'.

He picked up Kailah like he had done with Dawn, unlike Dawn however, Kailah let out a high-pitched scream and wrapped her arms around Oliver's neck. She then chose to stop screaming and let out a long sentence full of random swear words, all aimed at Oliver.

Acting as if this was no big deal, Oliver merely untwined her arms from his neck before throwing her through the wall, just like Dawn.

'Oliver! That is enough!' the woman hissed again.

'Our time is nearly up, we need to deal with this NOW'.

This time she actually took the time to walk towards us.

The remaining of us, with the exception of Alice who Oliver had beckoned to stand in front of him, faced the woman.

Everything about her screamed authority.

'We don't have enough time. You guys are children; obviously you couldn't have done it on your own. Now, I'm only going to ask you this once, what is the name of that who taught you?' Her eyes were icy blue, no trace of the crimson red that I had seen earlier.

We all opened our mouths, ready to bombard her with a bunch of explanations telling her all the same thing, before the bell rang overhead.

Then a silence.

'Too slow' Oliver growled, before lifting Alice up in his arms.

What happened next, put a more humorous feel on everything that had happened.

Alice screamed.

Way louder and high-pitched then Kailah, and that wasn't all.

She was kicking her legs in any random direction, some which hit Oliver, who stood there holding Alice at an arms length with a look of disgust on his face.

Her fists were flailing around aimlessly, like a newborn baby's.

But Oliver merely shook his head and, like the others, threw her through the wall where she disappeared.

The woman had her eyes closed, and let out a long sigh, almost as if she was relieved.

All of a sudden her eyes opened, 'we must go. Now. Time is running out.'

She made her way towards the door while we turned, our eyes following her; curious to find out what was happening but not curious enough to ask.

She paused at the threshold of the door, before saying 'deal with them'.

It didn't take long for us to find out who she was talking to as we suddenly felt the floor beneath us go, as well were lifted up into the air.

'Ugh! What is this!? I'm being man-handled!' Alyssa screamed, while Yuki and Davina had resulted to trying to fight off the burly bodyguards.

Despite the scuffle and diverted attention, one thing that was clear was laughter.

Laughter coming from Oliver as he walked past us, husky and kind of psychopathic.

We all then heard the 'that's what you get' as he stepped over the threshold.

All together, whether intentional or not, we yelled out a chorus of 'did what!?'

'Opened the portal! That's what!' Oliver roared, storming back into the room, 'never in my life has I met such a bunch of ignorant, stubborn-'

His rant was not finished.

The woman came back in; 'let them go'.

All of a sudden we felt the floor underneath us.

'Watch when I sue you guys, I'm going to take every goddamn penny you have' I heard Yuki mutter next to me.

'There telling the truth. We can't cause them any harm, we must go, now!' The woman snapped, disappearing from view.

Oliver and the two bodyguards followed suit.

'Who the hell do you guys think you are!?' Davina yelled, she was the only one standing, and by the look in her eyes I wouldn't have messed with her at this current moment.

If a record was given to the fastest re-entry into a room, I was pretty sure the woman could have held onto it, as within a blink of an eye she was there, holding Davina by the neck and looking like a mother leopard whose kids had been threatened on crack.

'I'll tell you who I am shall I? Name's Amelie, one of the world's oldest living vampires and founder of Morganville. And believe me little girl, I _do not_ bode well to unwelcome visitors in my town' she snarled, before the teeth came out.

All white, pointy and sharp.

Yep, we were in deep poo.


End file.
